Endgame
by Misgiving Writer
Summary: This is it. The moment that Songbreeze has been waiting for. Her leader is gone. StarClan has given up on them. She hasn't, though. She is still willing to fight, to defend her Clan. Now and forever. Until the game of life is over.


A/N: Hello there, I bring you another update from the Warriors Challenge Forum! As always, the link is in my profile. It's an awesome place, you should really go check it out. Anywho, I had to write about a forum member and I was given Songbreeze. It is written to the song Endgame by Rise Against. Awesome song, which I hope I did justice. ^-^

* * *

"Mouseroot?" Songbreeze asks, large blue eyes locking onto the trembling form of their medicine cat. "What is it?"

Silence is her only answer. The scrawny, dark grey tom doesn't move. Doesn't even glance in ehr direction. He just sits there in the entrance of his den, shoulders bunched and head tucked almost to the ground. Shaking.

"Mouseroot?" Songbreeze repeats, and this time her voice is a little more forceful. The other cats will be waking up soon and, when they do, they'll see him there. And they will come to the same conclusion that she has, even though he has offered her no answer.

StarClan spoke to Mouseroot last night, just as he was hoping they would. Songbreeze cannot imagine that they had good news.

When their aging medicine cat again gives them no answer, she sighs and moves closer to him. Gently nudges him to his feet, and again he refuses to look at her, just stares at the ground as though it holds the answers to everything.

"Come on now, Mouseroot." Songbreeze meows gently. "Let's get you inside."

No answer, but he puts up no fight.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"Streakpetal, will you come here?" Songbreeze calls out, twitching her tail in the tabby cat's direction.

"Yes, Songbreeze?" She asks, padding over to the deputy. Her dark green eyes are imploring, begging for an answer to the unasked question.

Regretfully, Songbreeze doesn't give it to her. Instead, she gestures to the waning pile of prey in the center of their clearing. "We're running out of prey fast, Streakpetal. Can you find Fallowleaf and Deerpaw and take them hunting? Maybe even bring Wildstorm with you?"

Dissapointment shines clear in the other she-cat's eyes but, to her credit, she merely gives a respectful dip of her head. "Of course, Songbreeze. We'll do our best to bring something back."

And, really, that is all that the young deputy can ask. Now, when prey is so scarce and their once safe forest is filled with danger, trying is all that she can ask for. It is all that she can do.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"Shadestar?" Songbreeze calls out, voice soft and gentle. "Can I come in?"

Inside of the fallen tree that serves as their leader's den, something rustles. There's the noise of a cat rising to their paws, dried leaves crumbling beneath pads, and then two light amber eyes appear in the darkness. Her leader doesn't invite her in, but she does come out.

In the waning light of dusk, Shadestar looks beyond pitiful. Her black fur is matted together in clumps, bits of moss and shredded leaves stuck to it. Ribs show. Eyes are dull - and for all the world, it looks as though the once proud she-cat has just given up.

"What?" She asks, and even that one word causes her to give a hoarse cough.

_Sick_, Songbreeze thinks morosly, _just like Mouseroot said._

"Brushburn just came back from a hunting trip." Songbreeze tells her, and she wishes with all her might that she had something good to tell her leader. That she could give encouragement, not destroy whatever frail hope her leader has been clinging to.

But she doesn't. She has no hope to give. No good news. Just more heart-break, more terror.

So she doesn't put it off any longer.

"He says that the rouges have come closer to camp. They're all the way to Shadow Creek now." Songbreeze says. "We cannot go there to hunt anymore."

And in that moment, when she tells her leader that MaskedClan's last prey aboundent area is no longer safe, she watches Shadestar break.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"You have to tell us what Mouseroot said, Songbreeze!" Raventalon yowls, and a chorus of agreement rises up around him.

The light-pelted deputy is trapped. Pinned by her own Clan-mates between the medicine cat's den, and that of the warriors. No where to go. No way not to tell them - but she _can't_ because it would break them, just like it broke their leader.

Just like it broke her.

Songbreeze cannot think of a way to explain that though, and only manages to shake her head.

"Why? We deserve to know just as much as you do!" This time, the demand comes from a queen. Brookrush, who had lost both of her kits to the rouges trying to invade their forest home.

_Because_, the young deputy wants to tell them, _I wish that I didn't know myself._

She cannot do that though, not to them. Not to her Clan. They rely on her. More now than they ever had, now that Shadestar has been confined to the back of Mouseroot's den. Songbreeze cannot tell them a lie, and she cannot keep the ageing tom's words to herself.

So, with regret in her eyes and hurt in her chest, she looks at the Clan gathered before her. They are all gaunt, all suffering from the effects of having their home invaded, but their eyes are bright.

They are the eyes of cats who have not yet given up. Cats who only need what they have then - each other.

"Mouseroot says that StarClan cannot help us. Our ancestors believe that MaskedClan is doomed, trapped between rouges and disease, and that we have no hope." Songbreeze says, and she tries to ignore the ache that is forming in her throat. "We missed their warning signs, or so they have told Mouseroot, and we cannot rely on them any longer."

A yowl of disspair comes from the group fo gathered cats, then a second. A third. They are all yowling, but only a few in disspair. Most, Songbreeze realizes, are shouting their dissaproval.

So she does the only thing that she, their deputy and stand-in leader, can do. She tells them the truth; "We may not be able to rely on them, cats of MaskedClan, but we can still rely on each other! This is the end of yesterday, but the beginning of tomorrow! We will fight! And we will win!"


End file.
